"Lynne Dawson proclaims her distinction as a Handel singer – if anyone doubted it – in the opening moments of this CD: Alcina’s aria, where her full, warm and intensely musical voice floats over the orchestra so appealingly. She has the grand manner necessary for this piece but also the delicacy of nuance to make the music saymuch more than the mere notes indicate."
My Personal Handel Collection
Gramophone, June 2003, Stanley Sadie

"Dawson seems to me a total and absolute success - indeed the star of the show. . ."
Gramophone magazine "The best thing about Harmonia Mundi's new recording...is the singing of Lynne Dawson in the title role; sensitive as ever, she clearly cherishes the riches Mozart showered on the heroine."
Simon Trezise, Opera Now, May/June 1998

"The disc would be worth its price simply for Lynne Dawson's account of a number from the almost unknown Ascanio in Alba: three minutes of the most ravishing Mozart singing imaginable."
Classic FM Magazine, August 1998

"Lynne Dawson enters, with an arietta of graceful beauty, celebrating her love - it's sung here spaciously, with some beautifully rich and floated tone, its lines subtly and sensuously moulded.  Dawson seems to me a total and absolute success, indeed the star of the show - and perhaps the leading Handel soprano today.  In Act 2 where Ginevra finds herself inexplicably rejected and condemned by everyone, Dawson brings real depth of tone and feeling to her E minor lament "Il mio crudel martoro"; in the final act she shines in the desolate miniature "Io ti bacio" and brings much fire to the outburst "Si, morro".  But she never transgresses the canons of baroque style."
Handel Ariodante - Les Musiciens du Louvre/
Marc Minkowski. DG Archiv
S. Sadie, Gramophone, February 1998

"The bravura arias are thrilling - they pose no hurdles for Lynne Dawson's lustrous Ginevra.  Handelians will want this set for the glorious singing of Lynne Dawson."
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, 4 January 1998

"Von Otter and Lynne Dawson are a predictably seductive pair, Dawson particularly affecting in the haunting aria that all but brings Act 2 to its shattering close."
Paul Riley, Classic CD, February 1998

"The great performance, however, came from Lynne Dawson as Mary Magdalene, spinning out the lines with a lustrous, creamy tone and capturing every shift in mood."
G.F. Handel - La Resurrezione
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, October 8 1999

"There is more good singing...by Lynne Dawson as a witty, attractive and charming Norina, pure and full in tone.  She also contrives to be funny without going over the top."
Don Pasquale; LPO / Parry (Chandos CHAN 2011)
Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, 15 November 1998

"As Norina - perhaps the hardest role - Lynne Dawson establishes her character positively in a performance that is technically impressive." 
George Hall, Hi-Fi News and Record Review, February 1999

"Lynne Dawson is a lively Norina, with an attractive, pure soprano voice and an engaging personality."
Charles Osborne, BBC Music Magazine, February 1999

"Lynne Dawson sings beautifully in her firm and resonant soprano and her usual poised and unaffected style.  Dawson's singing is one of the happiest features of this set and her singing of the lamenting music in the final act is particularly moving."
Gramophone, November 1997